


Just a day like any other

by navaan



Category: DCU (Comics), Gotham Central
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Gen Work, Gotham City Police Department, POV Female Character, Slice of Life, Yuletide 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:49:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas, but that doesn't mean much if you're police in Gotham. Just a day like any other for the major crimes unit, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a day like any other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveronthetree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveronthetree/gifts).



The MCU smelled of fir and cinnamon when Josie came back up, glad to get in from the cold, but the last thing on her mind at the moment was Christmas. She and Marcus had been out following the only lead they had on the Bargovsky murder case and as Marcus' grumpy face was giving away, they were still no closer to solving this one.

It was her first Christmas with the MCU and she was beginning to think that in Gotham the holidays were just days like any other. Marcus let himself fall into the chair at his desk, eyeing the stacks of paperwork waiting for him with distaste.

“Coffee?” Josie asked him, hoping to warm her own cold fingers with a hot mug of the stuff soon.

“Might as well,” he said and sighed.

So she slowly made her way over to the little coffee kitchen, passing Renée Montoya who was standing in front of the board, checking all the marks with a rather unhappy expression. “It always has to be worse around the holidays,” she said with a huff.

“Does it?” Josie asked and stopped beside her. There were three marks that stood for open cases for her and Marcus up there, which seemed like a normal load for the Gotham MCU officers, but there were more marks than usual across the board. “This city just doesn't like peace and quiet, does it?”

Renée shrugged, not taking her eyes away from the board as if she could just will some of the marks out of existence. “Daria wanted to have a nice quiet Christmas together. Might as well tell her she doesn't have to take time off on my account.”

“Don't be so gloomy, Renée,” her partner said, coming up behind her. It was hard to tell what he was thinking when he looked over the state of the board, but none of them were particularly happy about open cases. It was just in their nature to hate the unresolved state of things. It was their job to close these cases and bring in the crooks responsible. “Won't solve anything standing around here,” Chris muttered.

“Right,” Renée said with a pinched expression. “You're not in a hurry to close this one so you can have a wonderful Christmas with you family then, Chirs?”

“Just saying we should get moving, if we don't want to be stuck here for the holidays.” He was holding a thick manila folder in one hand and waved at Josie. “McKenzie,” he said with a sarcastic smirk.

“It's getting old, Chris,” Renée chided him. “Don't listen to him Mac.”

Josie just rolled her eyes at the old joke. “I need coffee,” she declared. “I'm sure I'm not up to solving cases without more coffee.”

“Not sure we're going to close any _with_ coffee either,” Renée grumbled. 

The Captain peaked out of her office. “Why is everyone standing around? I don't think we're running out of work, people. Are we going to wait until there is a major breakout at Arkham or a new freak decides to take up the challenge of terrorizing the city?”

“Let's not jinx it,” Romy Chandler muttered.

“Exactly!” Captain Sawyer said. “Now get moving!”

When Josie returned to her desk with the coffee and set a cup with the GCPD logo in front of Marcus, her partner looked up from what he was typing and said: “Holidays make us all nervous around here.”

“Seems like any other day to me, honestly.”

He smirked. “Welcome to the MCU, huh?”

“That's just Gotham City. Who in their right mind wants to be police in this city? Says a lot about us.”

* * *

Just after midnight on Christmas Day they closed the Bargovsky case. 

“One down, two to go. Happy Christmas,” Marcus intoned tiredly, leaning against their car and watching as two cops dragged away Bargovsky's former boss. For a seemingly petite woman she put up an impressive fight. Marcus had a long, angry red scratch mark on the left cheek that extends down his throat to show for it.

“What do you reckon? Will she get a free ticket to the happy home of the criminally insane?” Josephine asked her partner. 

“If she keeps it up maybe.”

* * *

She let Marcus go home, volunteering to wrap up the paperwork for this one.

When she got back up to the MCU, it was about 2 o'clock in the morning. Renée was still there, in front of the board again, but this time cleaning away one of the marks with a satisfied smirk. She caught sight of Josie when she looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Happy Christmas,” she said and sounded actually more happy than tired.

“Happy Christmas,” Josie said and grinned back, stepping up to her to clean away the mark that stood for the Bargovsky case.

“And so the city is a little safer again on Christmas Day.”

“For the time being, Montoya, don't jinx it. The day has only started,” Josie said and stuck out her tongue. “Much can happen in this town with so many hours in a day.”

She settled down and typed up her report. Renée wandered over a while later and poked her, holding out a nicely decorated, open box with self-made Christmas cookies. “Daria,” she said. “She also gave me some cinnamon muffins if you want one. They are delicious.”

It was strangely nice and domestic, sitting here in the dark of night, the office quiet for once, and sharing Christmas cookies. They all knew to take the quiet moments as they came. “This is cozy,” she mumbled. 

Renée smiled. “I should really head home, get some sleep. Kiss Daria. But I promised Chris to take care of the work so he wouldn't have to come in today...” She stretched and yawned. “She's going to pick me up here.”

“You should really get some sleep,” Josie said and yawned, too. 

Renée broke into laughter and Josie couldn't help it, she had to laugh along. “It's the stress,” Renée chuckled. “We're all going a little crazy up here.” 

“Just now the mood is less crazy than it is usually.”

They grinned at each other and Renée picked another cookie, urging her with a gesture and a glance to do the same. This was perhaps the first time since December had come around that Josie actually felt like it was Christmas.

The phone rang and Renée picked it up before she could, her face went serious instantly.

“Give it to me straight,” Josie demanded with a sigh. “Arkham exploded?”

“No,” Renée said with a grimace. “Bank robbery. A security guard got shot. A witness swears that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn teamed up for this.”

She let her head fall forward into her arms on the desk and sighed. “Can't they just celebrate Christmas like everybody else?”

“If they did things like everybody else, we wouldn't have a problem with them in the first place,” Renée pointed out, the real extend of her exhaustion now more visible again, as Josie peaked up at her. It looked like she was thinking about what to do next.

“I know we don't like doing it...” Josie started, “but are we going to turn on the, you know, light on the roof that isn't supposed to be there now or later, or do we hope the Bat just jumps in on his own?”

Renée suddenly grinned, one of her slightly malicious grins. “You know what? Why should the Bat have a nicer start into this fine Christmas Day than us?” She pulled herself away from where she'd been leaning against Josie's desk. “Let's ruin his day a little, too.”

“Stacy's not here,” she pointed out.

But Renée was grinning brightly. “Daria is about to pick me up. She's civilian enough, I think.” 

Josie looked at her printed out report and pulled herself up from the chair, walking over to drop it on Driver's desk. 

“Sounds like just another crazy night in Gotham.”

“Happy Christmas,” Renée chirped and they grinned at each other.

Just a day like any other for the major crimes unit in Gotham at least.


End file.
